Holy living (1 Peter 1:14-16)

Peter wants his readers to have a vibrant faith as part of holy living. What is necessary for such a lifestyle? Peter mentions four details: (1) recognise a relationship (obedient children); (2) recognise a danger (previous passions); (3) the character of God (holy); and (4) consistency (all your conduct).

 

The relationship of being God’s children commenced at conversion. It involves a privilege and a responsibility. The privilege is a very high one; indeed, it is the highest privilege that God could give to us. When the Lord forgave us, he did not have to adopt us into his family. 

It has been pointed out that justification restores us to God’s favour as servants. As sinners, we had disobeyed God and deserved to be punished. In his mercy, he sent Jesus to live the life that we should have lived and to pay the penalty for our failure to do so. His life of obedience is reckoned to our account. If God had not done more, we would have remained servants. 

That would be a wonderful status, but it would not have been the highest status. But God did more – he adopted the justified into his family. This occurred at the same time as justification, but it followed on immediately from justification. It is a great privilege to have for ever.

 

Yet it is important to recognise that we are still obligated to obey the Father, as Peter makes clear when he describes his readers as obedient children. This is the path of divine blessing. Obedience is essential for a happy Christian life. Now there is an additional incentive – we don’t only obey God because he is our sovereign, we also obey him because he is our Father. A disobedient Christian has lost sight of this amazing reality that he is a child of God, living in exile and waiting to inherit the kingdom.

 

The second detail in this verse is that God’s people, God’s children, must recognise a constant danger which is the possibility of conforming to the interests that dominated their outlook before they were converted. Peter describes them as passions, which is a word that points to things they loved to participate in and do. He says what they were in 4:3: ‘For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.’ The danger facing them was for them to resume doing what the Gentiles did at that time. When applied to us, it is engaging in the passions that mark our culture.

 

Peter says two things about that danger. First, it is an expression of ignorance. He does not mean lack of intelligence. Many of the Gentiles at that time were highly intelligent as they are today. But they were ignorant of the gospel and of the God behind the gospel. Yet if his readers went back to those patterns of behaviour, they would not be doing so out of ignorance. Rather, they would be doing so out of disobedience. 

 

Second, conforming to those practices would be their preferred choice. How or why would this take place? It would occur if the pressure to avoid persecution became so strong that they succumbed to it and resumed their previous way of life. Of course, persecution is not the only reason why this could happen. There are many reasons why people go back into the world, as Jesus indicated in his parable of the sower. It is dangerous to become conformed to the passions of the world.

 

The third detail in this verse is the nature of God – he is holy. Holiness is a big subject, and it is revealed in different ways. There is perfect creaturely holiness and one example of it is seen in the seraphim recorded in Isaiah 6. The angels who never sinned are described as the holy angels by Jesus (Mark 8:38). They reveal their holiness in the ways that they worship and serve God. The same is true of imperfect creatures on earth who are in the process of being sanctified. 

 

How does God reveal his holiness? He does so by doing all things for his own glory. That is a big difference between his holiness and ours. For us to do things for our glory would be sinful. We become holy as we live for his glory because that is what a converted person is meant to do. Why should we do things for his glory? Because he is God, the supreme Lord, who is perfect in every way.

 

On one occasion, Peter saw Jesus through his holiness. It occurred after Jesus had performed a miracle regarding catching fish. Peter, the experienced fisherman, had been unable to do so. He knew that the method Jesus used was not the normal one, but he also recognised that the method used by Jesus was the best one. That sight of the perfection of Jesus led Peter to confess that he was a sinful man, not fit to be in the presence of God. Peter’s best fell far short of the ability, the knowledge, and the power of Jesus. And that difference would be seen in any comparison with what we can do and what God can do.

 

Why are we called to be holy? Because it is the best way, the only way, to indicate that we grasp the significance of being his saved creatures. He saved us for us to become like him, even although an infinite gap remains between us and him. Matthew Henry pointed out that we must imitate him even although we cannot equal him.

 

The fourth detail is that we are called to be consistent in our conduct. In every area of life, we are to be holy. As Calvin put it, ‘There is then no part of our life which is not to be redolent with this good odour of holiness.’ This includes our minds, our affections, our choices, as well as our actions. It covers our pleasures and our priorities. Of course, if this was the case, many of our problems would not occur.